Baseball: Longmont-Erie begins Cherry Creek Classic favorably

Begano settles down for complete game win against Twins Red

NORTHGLENN — Zane Begano is trying to keep all the disappointments in the past. So far this summer for the Longmont-Erie baseball team, he's proven ready to take the next step.

The Erie student was limited in the spring season on the mound, but he improved to 2-0 during the summer slate on Thursday with a five-inning, complete-game victory against the Colorado Twins Red, continuing to show he might be the next shut-down hurler for the Tigers.

That's his personal mission as Longmont-Erie improved to 6-1 with the 10-2 victory at Northglenn High, which for them opened up the Cherry Creek Classic wood bat tournament positively.

"Definitely trying to get that No. 2 spot on varsity," said Begano, who allowed four hits but just one after the first inning Thursday. "I was kind frustrated this spring when I wasn't pitching a lot, and when I did I struggled to throw strikes. I think now the things I've been working on are going to help me.

"It was really nice to show that I could shut down a team like that after the first inning."

Begano had to make some adjustments early on, particularly to the higher mound on Larry Walker Field. Having a few pitches stay up in the zone early, Begano surrendered two triples and a double before striking out two batters to end the first frame.

Advertisement

After that, the Twins Red team struggled with solid connections. Elijah Larimore's double in the fifth was the only other base knock Begano allowed, and he struck out three.

"He settled in and found a nice rhythm, figuring out what he wanted to do with some good hitters," said Longmont-Erie co-coach Harold Simmons, Begano's spring head coach at EHS. "They put some good at-bats on him, but our defense made plays.

"Zane's thrown a few innings for us ... we'd like to see him throwing behind Kyle (Leahy), and right now he's kind of that front-runner. We'll see how it goes."

While Begano handled all the duty on the mound, Longmont-Erie strung together a couple of good at-bats in the second and fifth innings for eight of their 10 runs and scored in four of five innings overall.

Begano, Avery Peterson and Nic Ogimachi all hit triples in the span of four batters in the second, and Begano added two more RBIs on a single in the fifth. Josh Crites also tripled, and Easton Cacala scored twice and had an RBI, too.

"We had a lot of triples today, which was nice," Begano said. "We haven't been a team known for hitting longballs, but we have been hitting the gaps. It was good to come out hitting today."

Longmont-Erie will play two games Friday, while the Twins Red will play just one after having their doubleheader on Thursday. The Twins fell to the CageRats, 9-1, in their first game.

"I apologized to Longmont for not giving them a game," Twins coach Tom Kramer said. "That's normally kind of a rival game for us and we didn't show up to play. I feel like it was my mistake for not having them ready.

"Mentally, we were not there. That's kind of on me. The best thing about a tournament is we play tomorrow, so we'll put this away."